Key Takeaways:
- Explore the success of implementing technology to improve business processes.
- The importance of finding the right technology partner and nurturing a collaborative relationship with your vendor.
- How tech stack enhancements help improve advisor experiences and relationships with wholesalers.
- Research-backed insight into how wholesalers can tell compelling stories about their funds that empower advisors and their clients.
Daniel (00:06):
Daniel again for that awesome keynote for getting us kicked off. It is now, like I said, back to back action here this morning. It is my pleasure now to introduce our first case study of the day, Ron Rice, Vice President of Marketing with the Pacific Financial Group and James Rockwood, Founder and CEO of CapIntel, bringing this case study, unlocking new potential for advisor relationships and experiences using technology. Please welcome Ron and James to the stage.
James Rockwood (00:52):
Awesome. Thanks everybody. It is great to meet you. I am James Rockwood, I am the Founder and CEO of CapIntel. I am here with Ron Rice, I will let him introduce himself in a second. We are here to talk a bit about the case study and the story behind our relationship, hoping to give you some insight into how to help make technology transformation successful and talk a little bit about the relationship we have built and some of the exciting stats that we have been able to produce as a result of the relationship. So I will let Ron just talk a little bit about himself here.
Ron Rice (01:25):
Hi everybody. I am Ron Vice President of Marketing for the Pacific Financial Group. I have been in and around financial services marketing for three decades or so. Started off in Insurance, spent some time at Deloitte and their financial services practice and then five years at Russell Investments on their indexes side and then on their private client services side. And then most recently, now last four years with TPFG. TPFG is the only turnkey asset management platform designed specifically for the self-directed brokerage account management market. And we market 40 different model portfolios to plan participants. Mostly 401K, 403B, 457 plan participants. So that is us.
James Rockwood (02:14):
Awesome. And then I will talk a bit about CapIntel. So I started CapIntel in 2017. We launched our platform at the end of 2019. We are a B2B FinTech company working with financial advisors and asset management wholesalers. We help do investment comparisons and presentations and we focus primarily on working with enterprises headquartered in Toronto. And the platform is really built around how do we help create a really incredible experience for clients When you are talking about investment products, I think in particular and in this is a theme we'll talk about a lot today is technology has an outsized impact in wealth and asset management because the products that you recommend and the service to a large part is intangible. And so we take that responsibility really seriously of how do we make that product tangible, that fund, tangible that portfolio, tangible that goal, tangible for that client when they need to make a decision.
(03:14)
And so we are really happy to announce we have got around 12,000, over 12,000 advisors on the platform, over 800 asset management wholesaling teams and we have learned a lot about this impact of customer experience around investment presentations as a result of that. So today we are going to talk a bit about a few different things. So we'll talk a bit about the problem that we faced and that TPFG faced, how we came to a solution together. And then we are going to talk a lot about the business impact of technology as well as a couple tips and tricks that we found to make the implementation really successful. And so I will be brave in the morning and do a bit of a interactive thing. So show of hands of whoever's been a part of a technology implementation at a financial institution. Excellent. Now keep your hands up if that was an incredible experience, is very seamless that you wouldn't want to have you could do again.
(04:17)
Okay. Maybe one. That is good. I love that. So I think that that is something that is representative of a broader issue in this industry, which is that tech has been something that is been hard to implement, it is been hard to get adoption for. And historically I don't think it was due entirely just to the heavy sort of regulation, but just a bit of a cultural component to a few scars from some early technology that was brought in. And so you have seen the industry be a little bit behind in some areas of taking in tech. I think an interesting example that we are going to see coming up is how is a lot of this new AI technology going to get adopted? How much longer or later is the lag time going to be before it hits financial services? That should be a really good example of, I think generally it tends to be harder to do that in this industry.
(05:10)
And so to put it in perspective, I think that the tide is changing though, which is really exciting. And I think it was brought on by sort of three things. So in 2019, 12% of financial institutions said they would reached digital maturity. I think that is probably a slight over overestimation even around then because when the pandemic hit, it just exposed any crack you had in a tech strategy, any lacking piece of software or capability that you had. And so it really started to expose that and we saw as a material business impact to companies. And so we had stat here, 77% of US financial advisors reported they lost a business due to lack of appropriate digital tools during the pandemic, and so people realize that it can not just be digital as a lag thing, it is not something that we need to do to keep up. It is something we actually need to do to accelerate and to protect our business.
(06:09)
And so you are seeing a big change now of 85% of wealth business leaders want to partner with a third party tech provider in the next 12 to 18 months. And I think that the other component which is going to compound this is consumer expectations also changed around what digital means, what is possible online, what to expect, what it needs to look and feel like. And that has a huge impact, especially when it comes to investment presentations and talking a little bit about articulating the value of your service or product or why you are different in the market, whether you are an asset manager trying to differentiate to financial advisors, you are a financial advisor trying to differentiate to a retail customer. So Ron, I would love to hear a bit about what motivated TPFG to change.
Ron Rice (06:52):
Well we are about a 35 year old RIA and for most of our history of our firm, we are a pretty typical asset manager pro investment process. But about four or five years ago we kind of turned to this new tamp structure and kind of a model portfolio curator. We had a different story we wanted to tell and a whole different process and we needed to make that come alive. At the time we were telling our story, we had a proposal tool that was did not have the best adoption, so we were looking to improve that. And so we had to kind of start with a clean slate and that is when we started looking at our current tech stack, what we had thought we might be able to do internally, but what we figured out that we needed to outsource. And that is when we started looking at different partners, FinTech partners, and that is what led us to CapIntel.
James Rockwood (07:53):
Awesome. And so then talking a bit about the solution, I think that the key to any positive implementation for tech is a collaborative relationship and having something where people are willing to give up time of their day-to-day to improve their overall or their. And so we sort of worked with TPFG and identified three targeted upgrades that they needed. So the first came down to product, going back to that technology has a huge responsibility in making these intangible products, these intangible services tangible for clients and for advisors at a really critical point when you are making a decision to work with somebody or not when you are making a decision to add a fund to your portfolio or not. So we need to get into how do we help articulate that value and tell that story. Second component, which is key to any tech implementation is the process.
(08:52)
So what is your current process today? How can technology change that process and how do we make sure to make it a long-term better outcome for the firm? The third thing is that strategic relationship. You will not get technology adopted, you will make technology well implemented unless you invest in a relationship with your tech provider. And unless your tech provider invests in a relationship with you that goes beyond just the potential budget holder and goes into anybody who's going to touch that software, having at least somebody or representative of that group at the table aware what is going on and talking about it, I think that is really important because that is a big component of what we did to make this happen is something I think is key to any sort of success.
(09:43)
So better product, just starting with that I think is something that we think a lot bit about. And so our research shows that 81% of investors strongly agree that investment presentations and proposals impact their decision. It is that moment where you have something come to life, it is that decision moment. So even referencing the keynote before highly emotional, it is anxiety soup for the customer on the other side because you are suddenly making a decision and that decision is going to impact a material goal to your life. If you think about a lot of life goals and financial goals are so closely intertwined. So whether it is I want to retire, whether it is I want to send a kid to college, these are all wealth goals inherently. And so you need to be able to trust that person with that goal. And so the proposal is that one component that allows you to make that real for them and that allows you to make that anxious decision, build confidence and make the person ultimately feel much happier with the advice you are delivering and feel more confident in the decision that they are making.
(10:50)
At the same time, you need to make sure that that presentation can get easily created, is going to be accretive to the business itself, is not going to be a new login, a new workflow, something that is going to take away from or add administrative burden to it. And so you want to make sure it is got the brand allows TPFG to tell their story is educational, can build confidence with that client and then it is simple and easy to understand. So Ron, maybe if you want to talk a bit about the business impact that had.
Ron Rice (11:22):
Well you talk about a better product. Yeah. We had been using a couple off the shelf tools to create our performance reports and like I said, I mentioned it was kind of a homegrown version of our own proposal tool, but when we started looking at some of the alternatives, we knew we needed a better product, tell our story as I mentioned. And I think Intel came to us when we started looking at their solution set and more of what they could do. You talk about the strategic relationship, that is kind of what for us kind of tip the scale they invested into us. We love their tools, we love their products. So we talked to a lot of potential providers and they all had a lot of wonderful tools. But I think that investment, the mindset invested into our strategy and our story and what we wanted to tell. I think that was for us kind of what tipped the scales toward CapIntel's favor. So the products are good, the proposal tool was good. We developed a third tool to kind of an advisor learning tool around SDBA and that turned out quite well also.
James Rockwood (12:31):
That is awesome. And I think these stats are interesting too of just the volume of impact you, you have got 1,054 new client proposals made in the first nine months. So it is a lot of that ability, if you can improve the impact, make it easier to get presentations out there and then make the presentations higher conversion, you are able to really start to grow your business organically as a result of that.
(12:56)
Second part was better process. So this is really where tech providers can overlook things, especially if you are going for even without of the box type solutions, like finding a way to get buy-in from different stakeholders, especially around administrative work and administrative lift. The technology can very easily automate in many senses I think is really important. So we went through and worked with Ron's team to say, okay, what is the process you have today is an opportunity for us to help out and not just give you better presentations but also eliminate some of the admin work that your team's doing. And so for us focus on enterprise, we have key functionality around being able to get to an admin portal. You've got formatted data, you can pull reports out of that, you can pull data out of that really easily. And we knew that was something that was going to be important for Ron and his team if you want to chat a bit about that.
Ron Rice (13:54):
Yeah, I think we had really good adoption early on. Our sales organization, our customer service organization had a lot of good input, input in building the tool. So we had good adoption early on the product, the solution was flexible, so different comparisons, great UI, great UX. So as far as the tool itself, it was better the process we talked about and I think we have a slide on it too, but that was pretty close to me. I manage a team that does all of our typical end of quarter reporting and it was extremely, extremely cumbersome and you see it up on the screen, but that is a real number. At the end of each quarter we were probably spending collectively our team was spending upwards of 120 hours and four weeks past the end of quarter end to try to get through all of our performance performance reporting materials, get them created, get them through compliance, get them posted, and we literally cut that down to 10 hours. So that is amazing process improvement. I sleep a lot better now at night, especially at the end of the quarter. And our thanks to CapIntel for helping us with that. The process is much more seamless and much improved.
James Rockwood (15:20):
And a quick comment on that too, I think from our perspective, you think about a customer experience, people wanting to find out and be able to see, especially when it comes to reporting information, performance information. The faster you can get that out into the market, the better the experience is going to be. Not with TPFG, but with another client we had, they were doing reporting, it was six to eight weeks after the end of the quarter to be able to get that information out. And you can imagine in March, 2020 when clients wanted to know where their statements were and what is going on with the market and what is going with my wealth picture and they couldn't come out with it until the middle of May, that is a material experience impact. Customers are sitting there going, well, how do I know? And the advisor can not provide that info. So being able to get these reporting times down also I think has a really huge impact on customer experience. So I think Ron, do you want to talk a little bit about, I think the relationship from your perspective with us and then I can comment on it too.
Ron Rice (16:20):
Yeah, happy to. So as I mentioned, we looked at a lot of providers, a lot of great tools, a lot of great technology. But when it came down to it, we connected with CapIntel and these folks basically because of, I think culturally we sort of fancy ourselves as innovators in the STBA space. We got the sense early on that Cap Intel had the same sort of mindset. So that connection, that innovative spirit if you want to call it that led to this great sort of like-mindedness and this collaborate collaborative spirit. And what I liked about the folks at CapIntel is they sort of leaned in to what the story that we wanted to tell, help understand exactly what we were trying to solve for the other providers were interested. But I think that the folks at Intel sort of invested and we felt that it was real, it was tangible and it was that sort of the core, that strategic partnership and that relationship that I mentioned, tip the scales and their team, the rigor of their process, which is really, really important. And a lot of people on our side, a lot of people on their side informing the process. Sometimes it became a bit chaotic as projects like this will, but they had a good sense of how to keep us all on track and manage the process really, really well and with great customer service. So it is built a really good partnership because of all those things.
James Rockwood (18:05):
I think too, as a check provider, sometimes you think well just sign up for the software and leave it if you are going out of the box as well, it is that much easier to just let the client buy your software and move on. But having a real thought leadership when it comes to we are going to bring ideas, we are going to be consultants, we are going to make sure that we find the best way for you to leverage the software. We are going to listen if there are changes that need to be made, not in a way to customize, but how do we also improve the platform overall. And then after you launch it, continuing to check in and make sure it is working as needed, that there are ideas that clients will have. It is such a good opportunity for you as a firm to inform your own roadmap and make your product way better and more impactful.
(18:55)
For me at CapIntel, this all started talking to advisors, continuing to talk to advisors, learning about what are you doing today, where's the pain? Asking what do you do 15 minutes before you log into CapIntel what do you do 15 minutes after you log out of it? Where else can we be important and impactful I think is another big component. And then at firms and building out implementation, it is just about building alliance at multiple levels of the organization. You are going to have project managers, you are going to have executives, you are going to have sponsors and make sure you are pairing off with your tech provider and vice versa to ensure that you can escalate problems as needed. You can come up to clarify anything I think is really important too. So investing a lot in that relationship way more than just a vendor, but as a partner I think is important. So we thought as a ending out the last few minutes here to reflect a bit on the partnership and ask Juan a couple questions just to chat a little bit more through some of the benefits we have seen, some of the implementation tips and tricks that we have. So we'll dive right into that. So Ron, what surprised you most about taking on a project like onboarding new tech across your organization?
Ron Rice (20:13):
I was actually a little bit scared about the scope, potential scope of what we were talking about doing. We hadn't necessarily embarked on any kind of a large scale project like this, so I was expecting some more obstacles and roadblocks, but it turned out to be an efficient process. It turned out to be a collaborative process, not a lot of tension we missed or we made of our deadlines, our goals and our milestones. So that I was a little worried about that, but I think the process went a lot smoother and I think it just boils down to that partnership that you talked about. We talked about this whole session. So that is what kind of surprised me the most, I think.
James Rockwood (21:04):
Yeah, fair. And it sounds like especially based on some of the earlier stats you talked about that trepidation at the outset is yeah, totally understandable. Absolutely.
Ron Rice (21:13):
Absolutely.
James Rockwood (21:14):
Yeah, that is awesome. What are the key takeaways you'd want asset management and wealth firms to know about implementing New Tech?
Ron Rice (21:24):
I would say find a partner you can trust. Ask them a lot of questions. Ask them about in depth, not just about their capabilities and their tools, but about them, their culture. See if it fits with your own. And I think that sets the foundation for not just a great project or whatever you want to implement, but just a great longer term relationship. So we are a year on now. We did, we invested like I just mentioned. And so we have a great foundation, a great cornerstone of relationship going forward and we have got more work to do.
James Rockwood (22:10):
So I would also say too that implementation isn't like a one-time thing and that the more impactful technology is going to be, it'll be more disruptive to your advisors and to your workflow. If you want big change, you are going to need a big change and big change can take time. And so I think doing things around implementation as ongoing, engaging with your tech provider on a quarterly basis, holding them to account to drive adoption, making sure that you have got a good internal narrative as well around the technology, around driving the adoption too. If you just give somebody a good tool, they are necessarily going to use it. You need to make sure that you are advocating for its use because it is always easier to maintain status quo. And just because they have something available doesn't mean they are going to pick it up. And if it is transformational to their business, if it is a new process, it is also a new process that is going to have cost to it as far as the advisor thinking about it.
(23:10)
And so how do you make sure that people are going to see the value in disrupting their current workflow or their current day-to-day to then have a much better day today in the long run. And I think that is a huge component that is really important is your onboarding tech. Just to keep in mind it is not okay, we have implemented, it is done now, it is successful, it is perfect. It is going to say, okay, we have implemented, we started the adoption process, let's continue to meet, let's continue to talk about it. Let's stay close to the clients, stay close to the users, make sure that that is successful.
Ron Rice (23:44):
I would say one thing too that I want to mention is it is important for, I think the folks at CapIntel were good listeners. They understood our pain points and what we were trying to accomplish. So they made really good recommendations, they understood us, they listened, they understood us, and they were able to make really good recommendations before we even sort of thought of some things. So we really appreciated that sort of proactive communication. I know it sounds sort of trite and very common, but it was fundamental for me to the overall success of not just this project, but of the foundation of our relationship. So thank you for that. Yeah.
James Rockwood (24:25):
Finally, what are you looking forward to most as we continue to work together?
Ron Rice (24:31):
You guys got some really great playlists, some Spotify playlists I want, I want to continue to share Spotify playlists.
James Rockwood (24:38):
We can do that.
Ron Rice (24:40):
That is the most thing I am looking forward. No, I mean we have got some good work ahead. We have got version one, version two, we have made some improvements, we have got some things we want to continue to build on. And for me, I don't have that same sort of hesitation or fear. I am kind of not, oh, let's go. Let's dive into the next thing. Let's improve what we already have and make it even better, make it even better tool. So that is kind of what I am looking forward to, just improving and making things even better than they are today.
James Rockwood (25:07):
Yeah, I would agree. I think from my perspective, it is also learning every new customer you have is an opportunity to improve your product in the long term. It is the opportunity to find net new functionality, new product ideas. So staying close, being able to work on, have a plan of how do we continue to invest in this relationship, make it better, how do we continue to learn from each other and improve our overall platform? That is been such a key component to us. I think we have built our software to be really modular, really easy to change and to be able to adapt to different workflows and different user cases, whether it is a in branch financial advisor with low levels of discretion and a bunch of different products they need to present to high net worth or all try net worth advice to wholesalers. They all have different workflows and that is all come from learning and speaking to different clients. And it is a huge component of our roadmap. And a big part of what I spend my day is trying to figure out how do we get that feedback in, how do we continue to use it to make new ideas and to better position ourselves in the future? And that is awesome.
(26:17)
Cool. There we go. A few minutes early, which is good. So thank you so much Ron for this. Thanks everybody for letting us speak to you and walk through this.